It's better to be a squiggly line over a straight line.

Stop pit-stopping at the places society thinks you should.

With the invention of social media, we are living in the land of constant comparison. We are unable to see past what others have “accomplished”. We thought by this age, we would be married, have kids, and have a thriving career. Then when you hit that age, you are instantly dissatisfied with the lack of progress you’ve made towards those goals that we set for ourselves at like 14 years old. But what we miss is when you spend all that time calculating what you “should” have accomplished, we miss the beautiful things we do have and how maybe you have unconsciously course-corrected your own life to make it better than you could have ever imagined.

In my 20s, and amid a quarter-life crisis, as we all experience at the age. I realized something that took me another 5 years to fully understand. Life isn’t linear. It’s not a rest stop situation, where you pull off the highway and pick up the love of your life, then in 3 to 5 years you veer off again and pick up an engagement ring and wedding. We don’t go through life making pit stops where we think we must. It’s the most convoluted idea that they want you to believe. Are you more in love because you’re married, are you prettier because you’re skinny, or are you smarter because you got your college education right out of high school instead of waiting? There are many ways to live your life and be happy with it.

When I finally decided one day, sitting on my couch to call and get the enrollment process rolling for school. I couldn’t tell you exactly what drove that moment. It was honestly like, “fuck it!” It was by far the best decision I’ve made in the last 5 years. I let go of the shame of going back to school at my age. There’s no limit to becoming knowledgeable and no one can tell me how to live my non-linear life. I feel like the past few years of my life have been course corrections that have created foundations of happiness that I was missing out on when I was chasing the illusion of what I thought I wanted.

Think back to the day you graduated high school, you probably have already been accepted to a school or have a plan after school. I find it highly irregular that we have high school graduates who go off to college thinking they know what they want out of their life at that age. I sure as hell didn’t. At graduation, I wanted to go to school for photography, and after some looking, I noticed no school in Iowa had a fantastic photography program, so where else am I going to look other than New York. It was one of the driving forces behind moving to New York. But looking back now, society is pushing young adults to make big life-altering decisions and that can have an immense impact on our lives. The “you must go now!” line for college is just horrible because sometimes, “you have to live your life before you can decide what type of life you want to live.”

We measure success by the dollar amount in our bank account, the cars we drive, and how big our houses are. How many people have come before me and said the exact words, “money doesn’t make you happy.” Yes, I want to be financially stable and have cars that run properly and a modest house. But the illusion is that financial stability is happiness is bullshit, financial stability is just that…financial stability. Money doesn’t measure your happiness.

I created Re-Invention under the banner, no shame. But sometimes those shameful thoughts creep in no matter how hard we try to keep them at bay, it’s a natural part of the process for anything you set out to achieve. Whatever you are trying to achieve, don’t give up because it’s not coming fast enough, work every day to make it bigger than it was yesterday. The work you put into your craft or your job, it’s your decision, and no matter what others say, it’s right for you!

Did I think I would be attending school at 31?

Nope. But was it the right time for me, absolutely; because I’m now an adult who can align my priorities and be the best student I can be. Accept your journey, just because it differs from someone else’s doesn’t matter even one iota and shouldn’t take up any real estate in your head. Days are going to be hard, and you will wonder if you made the right decision, do you know how you know for sure…you keep coming back to it every single day trying to better your craft and course-correct yet again.

Skip those pit stops, if you want to bypass all the “you should do this” pit stops and completely veer off course, go for it because it will lead you into the happiest you will ever be.